1. What's your style?
I guess I could describe my style as biker-school-girl. I love leather jackets, motorcycle jeans and my black on black Yankees fitted, but pleated minis, collared tops and platform stilettos just as much. I am a sort of girly tomboy; my favorite wardrobe items are my purple heels and all/any of my leather.
2. What's your spirit animal or an animal you identify with?
If I had to pick an animal with which I can identify I guess I'd say a butterfly and a tiger. The butterfly for personal transformation and attraction to beauty, art and the evolution of life and the tiger for strength and vitality, independence and willpower.
My superpower would be hyper-learning abilities, kind of like LeeLoo in the 5th Element learning all of human history in a flash. I could have a port in the back of my head or something, plug in, download a bunch of information and just have it all immediately processed.
4. What prompted the switch from glamorous model to super science chick?
Modeling was great because it provided me a lot of freedom, and the opportunities to travel to foreign countries and to meet interesting people, but I was always really into science when I was young. I grew up working with my hands, helping on the farm, raising animals, and fixing and building things. After traveling and modeling for like 6 years, I started feeling like I wanted a new challenge which would give me more job security and the ability to plan better for my future. I started taking classes and fell back in love with science and the learning process. Meanwhile, between classes and modeling jobs, when the weather was good and work was slow I found myself out on my patio building things like a doghouse with passive ventilation and a greenhouse made from salvaged materials. It was like everything just added up and engineering became a natural and fun transition for me.
Career-wise I've faced some challenges. Traveling internationally on my own was an experience, I had to learn to be very adaptable and independent, to move to a new, foreign place in an instant and find my way around to castings and jobs. In Asia our agents helped us a lot more by driving us around and translating, but in Europe and the Middle East I was essentially on my own to work it all out. Transitioning into college after an eight year break was also a huge challenge for me. Most of all it was very hard to give up the freedom that I had grown used to. Specifically I didn't want to start in low level courses so I had to work really hard to catch up (mostly with the math) since I had spent years forgetting anything I had learned in high school. Both of these challenges were well worth the effort though.
Bonus Question - What keeps you motivated everyday?
I'm really self-motivated. I get a lot of pleasure out of learning and working and I really just love science and engineering. It feels great to work in such a critical field. I also want to try set a good example for my nephew and make my family proud. All of my friends are super supportive of my new career path too. I'm very lucky and it all makes it really easy to stay motivated.
Oh wow! Seriously, this girl blows me away. When I met Michelle years ago, I had no idea that all this was inside of her. But I knew there was a spark and lots of confidence to go with that pretty face. From farm girl to makeup artist to model to engineer... I wonder what's next for this spitfire. We'll just have to wait and see. Thanks for sharing your story, Michelle. If there's a model you want to get to know or if you're a model with an interesting story, shout me out.
No comments:
Post a Comment